1,721,048 research outputs found
Object (B)logging: a Semantic-Based Self-Description for Cyber-Physical Systems
Full text linkPervasive computing deals with heterogeneous mobile agents attached to ubiquitous micro-devices. In such scenarios, what one agent knows about the environment is based on perception components it uses or has access to, and it can be significantly different from another agent's knowledge. Furthermore, transient conditions and uncertainty affects perceptions and communication, aggravating the need to cope with the lack of complete and reliable information. Current solutions in the Internet of Things (IoT) are mostly based on centralized data collection and analysis and on top-down agent orchestration, with obvious limitations in latency, connection availability and data confidentiality.
This thesis proposes a novel distributed knowledge-based framework named object (b)logging to tackle the above issues. The approach is conceived as a general-purpose evolution of the IoT, able to associate semantic annotations to real-world objects and events as well as to trigger complex objects choreography through advanced resource discovery. It envisions several smart entities organized in social networks, interacting autonomously and sharing information, cooperating and orchestrating resources through a published micro-blog. Ontology-referred context annotations produced and shared by individual smart objects in mobile ad-hoc networks are merged by means of novel Concept Fusion and enhanced Concept Integration reasoning services in Description Logics, specifically devised for context-aware multi-agent systems and tailored to resource-constrained devices. Management of incomplete information, reconciliation of inconsistencies in context descriptions, quick adaptation to changes and robustness against spurious or inaccurate information allow to progressively enrich a node's core knowledge in a private micro-log. Then it becomes able to identify on-the-fly the task(s) needed to change its own configuration or the environment state and automatically infer what useful capabilities it can provide to or needs from other entities in order to enact them, in a decentralized and collaborative fashion. A novel semantic-enhanced blockchain infrastructure underlies the dissemination, discovery and selection of services and resources. These tasks have been revisited as smart contracts with opportunistic and distributed execution, exploiting validation by consensus. The introduced paradigm ideally applies to pervasive cyber-physical systems, where several mobile heterogeneous micro-devices cooperate to connote and modify appropriately the environment they are dipped in, as demonstrated by relevant case studies and extensive experimental evaluations
Coordination for Internet Application Development
No full textThe adoption of a powerful and expressive coordination model represents a key-point for the effective design and developmentof Internet applications. In this paper, we present the tucson coordination model for Internet applications based on network-aware and mobile agents, and show how the adoption of tucson can positively benefit the design and development of such applications, firstly in general terms, then via a tucson-coordinated sample application
Engineering Societies in the Agents World V
No full textThis book contains revised and expanded versions of the papers presented at the fifth international workshop on engineering societies in the agents' world
Engineering Societies in the Agents' World, First International Workshop
No full textRevised paper of the first ESAW workshop
Coordination Technologies for Internet Agents
No full textSince Internet applications are intrinsically interactive and collaborative, the definition and development of an appropriate coordination model, and its integration in forthcoming Internet programming languages, is a key issue to build applications including mobile entities. We sketch the main features that such a model should present. Then, we survey and discuss some coordination models for Internet programming languages, eventually outlining open issues and promising research directions
Challenges and research directions in agent-oriented software engineering
No full textAgent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However, despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced (i) to make agent-based computing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and (ii) to turn agent-oriented software abstractions into practical tools for facing the complexity of modern application areas. In this paper, after a short introduction to the key concepts of agent-based computing ( as they pertain to software engineering), we characterise the emerging key issues in multiagent systems (MASs) engineering. In particular, we show that such issues can be analysed in terms of three different scales of observation'', i.e., in analogy with the scales of observation of physical phenomena, in terms of micro, macro, and meso scales. Based on this characterisation, we discuss, for each scale of observation, what are the peculiar engineering issues arising, the key research challenges to be solved, and the most promising research directions to be explored in the future
An Agent-oriented Conceptual Framework for Biological Systems Simulation
No full textRecently, a collective effort from multiple research areas has been made to understand biological systems at the system level. On the one hand, for instance, researchers working on systems biology aim at understanding how living systems routinely perform complex tasks. On the other hand, bioscientists involved in pharmacogenomics strive to study how an individual’s genetic inheritance affects the body’s response to drugs. Among the many things, research in the above disciplines requires the ability to simulate particular biological systems as cells, organs, organisms and communities. When observed according to the perspective of system simulation, biological systems are complex ones, and consist of a set of components interacting with each other and with an external (dynamic) environment.
In this work, we propose an alternative way to specify and model complex systems based on behavioral modelling. We consider a biological system as a set of active computational components interacting in a dynamic and often unpredictable environment. Then, we propose a conceptual framework for engineering computational systems simulating the behaviour of biological systems, and modelling them in terms of agents and agent societies
Forward refutation for Gödel-Dummett Logics
Full text linkWe propose a refutation calculus to check the unprovability of a formula in Gödel-Dummett logics. From refutations we can directly extract countermodels for unprovable formulas, moreover the calculus is designed so to support a forward proof-search strategy that can be understood as a top-down construction of a model
Open Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering
No full textAgent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However,despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced to make agentbasedcomputing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and to turn agent-orientedsoftware abstractions into practical tools for facing the complexity of modern application areas. In thispaper, after a short introduction to the key concepts of agent-based computing and to the state of the art inthe area, we try to identify a few key open research directions
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